African-American Studies

The African-American studies program at Bradley is the scholarly pursuit of knowledge about the history, philosophies, ethics, psychologies, attitudes, religious experiences, and cultural manifestations as they exist within the context of African-American people in American society, i.e., the African-American experience. African-American studies also has a subsidiary, yet corollary, focus on African and Caribbean ideologies as they influence the progression and development of the African-American community.

In addition, African-American Studies at Bradley has a multidisciplinary approach with a two-fold emphasis: (1) to investigate the African-American experience from within the context of criteria established by Afrocentric scholars; and (2) to investigate the African-American experience from a comparative basis, i.e., the established criteria of Eurocentric scholars. Inherent in that approach is one of the primary objectives of an institution of higher learning: to develop the critical and analytic skills of all students in assessing factual and subjective information. A subsidiary objective is to provide students with the skills to understand, carefully and adequately, the particulars of “race” as they extend to universal (national and international) implications. Further, African-American studies is also an approach to understanding self, community, and nation through concrete examples taken from the African-American experience. Since universal ideas are equally implicit in all humans, regardless of social status, gender, sexual preference, religious persuasion or race, African-American studies is an attempt to illustrate how African-Americans are the “same but different” in terms that transcend time, place and generic differences. Although African-American studies will use the context of the African Diaspora as a means to explore predispositions about gender, status, religion or race, the overall objective is to help students become critical thinkers.

Minor in African-American Studies (15 Credit Hours)

Required Courses (6 Credit Hours)

• AAS 200 Introduction to African-American Studies - 3 hrs.
• AAS 400 Directed Research in African American Studies - 3 hrs.

Elective Courses (9 Credit Hours)

• Category I (select two) 6 hrs.

  • ENG 129 African American Literature
  • ENG 329 Studies in African-American Literature
  • HIS 316 African American History since 1877
  • IS 275 Political Economy of the Developing World
  • IS 440 Problems in African Development
  • SOC 313 Race, Ethnicity and Power

Approximately one-half of the course reading and instruction in these courses will focus on issues pertaining to Black people, i.e. African-Americans, Africans or West Indians.

• Category II (select one) 3 hrs.

  • ECO 313 American Economic History
  • PLS 360 Judicial Politics
  • PLS 422 Urban Politics

Approximately one-quarter of the course reading and instruction in these courses will focus on issues pertaining to Black people, i.e. African-Americans, Africans, or West Indians.

A 2.0 grade point average in African-American studies courses is required for satisfactory completion of the African-American studies minor. It is expected that each African-American studies minor will have a knowledge of a language other than English.

This is the official catalog for the 2015-2016 academic year. This catalog serves as a contract between a student and Bradley University. Should changes in a program of study become necessary prior to the next academic year every effort will be made to keep students advised of any such changes via the Dean of the College or Chair of the Department concerned, the Registrar's Office, u.Achieve degree audit system, and the Schedule of Classes. It is the responsibility of each student to be aware of the current program and graduation requirements for particular degree programs.